


Madness Can Set You Free

by MoonlightSyreen



Category: Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
Genre: Confusion, F/M, Fluff, Multi, Silence
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-10-18
Updated: 2016-06-11
Packaged: 2017-12-29 19:19:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 4,491
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1009084
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MoonlightSyreen/pseuds/MoonlightSyreen
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Listener has been found. Problem is, she is just like the Night Mother in her way of...speech patterns. Cicero is at a large loss because of this and another reason blooming in his heart.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

"EXPLAAAAIN YOURSELF!"

The angered scream seemed to rock the cavern where the Dark Brotherhood. Arnbjorn made his way to his wife's study and found her pouring over the large map near the door to their bedroom.

"We've got a problem..."

Astrid straightened at the words and her mind knew only one answer:

"Hesara!"

As she ran to get to the Night Mother's coffin, a milky eyed Bosomer stood in a daze as the Jester before her screamed and raved. She thought back to what had happened only a few long minutes ago.

" _ **Poor Cicero. Dear Cicero. Such a humble servant...**_ "

Her eyes flickered towards the man. Cicero was the Keeper. Of the Night Mother. The dark matron of the Brotherhood she had entered into. He had arrived a few months ago with the coffin that carried her remains and since, the family had never been the same.

Hesara had watched with a sense of detachment as she watched everything else. The man dressed as a Jester and acted like a madman. Many times he had danced around her, trying to get her to crack a smile instead of trying to get her to talk like most. The only time she broke out of the haze was when Astrid had taken her aside to give her this new...mission. She believed that Cicero was trying to talk the others into turning back to the Night Mother as their leader instead of Astrid. She gave Hesara her plan of listening in on Cicero's conversation with the traitor. Hiding inside the Night Mother's coffin.

There, in the chill of the iron tomb, a prickling sensation picked up at the back of her neck...right before the Night Mother started to speak.

" _ **Yes, yes. We know of Astrid's insecurities**_ ," the Night Mother went on, answering the silent question and brushed it off before saying," _ **We are the same, you and I. We are the same on different sides. I am dead yet you are living. We both do not speak to many. Only one. Not with our lips...but our minds are a different story.**_ "

It was true. She never felt the need to use her voice. There seemed to not really be anything of great importance to talk about. No one liked what she liked. No one had done a lot of what she had done. Her mind, however, was always full of questions. She loved to learn new things.

" ** _No...Cicero will never hear my voice. He shall remain my faithful Keeper. You, however, Dragonborn...WILL be my Listener._** "

_Nothing came to her mind then. It was affectively wiped clean of any form of words and thoughts._

" ** _Yes, you. You who share my iron tomb, who warms my ancient bones. You who has the souls of dragons trapped in her own. You are now mine. I give you this task. Travel to Volunruud. Speak with Amaund Motierre._** "

Outside, the sounds of lamenting drifted to the Bosomer's ears as Cicero started moaning about his failure to the Night Mother for not tracking the Listener.

For not being able to find...her.

" ** _Tell Cicero that the time has come. Speak to him the words he has been waiting for, all these years..._** "

" _I am honored for the title, dark mother_ ," she had thought back graciously as the Matron fell silent once more and light spilled through the widely opening crack as the coffin doors were pulled open.

And the screams started up. She patiently waited him out.

XXXXX

Cicero stopped and cocked his head to the side. He could see the defiler's lips moving, forming words over and over again. Curiosity, for once, got the better of him. He squinted harder to watch her lips move silently. He blanched at what he thought was...

"What is that," he asked shrilly,"What are those words you're mouthing over and over and over?!"

She didn't look up. Her eyes were still glued to the ground near his feet.

"Say it again," he said, knife still poised and eyes wild,"Say it aloud! Say it again! Say it say it SAY IT, damn you!"

She looked up at him slowly, maddeningly slow until their eyes connected over the gap of space and she went over the words again. He could tell. Her milky eyes lightened and dimmed with the words as they went over in her head.

"Aloud," he shrieked,"Say the words alooooud!"

She looked at him blankly with her maddening white eyes. With a quick jump, Cicero was on her with the knife now at her throat.

"TELL ME," he raged, pressing it down hard enough so that blood leaked from the pale flesh,"TELL ME THOSE WORDS YOU SPEEEEAK!"

When she still didn't, when she still remained as silent as the Night Mother, he screamed once more. Silence! Damnable silence! Too many times has it filled his ears with it's chaotic buzz and embraced him in it's maddening hold! He would make this silent defiler speak! As he kept her alive at the brink of death, he will make her scream!

Cicero raised the dagger high, eyes gleaming with merriness at the thought of forcing sound from her-

And she spoke. A mere whisper, like a soft breeze, making his skin pebble in awareness.

"Darkness rises," she whispered,"when silence...dies."

He stopped the plummeting of the dagger when his body went into shock. 

"She...said that.....to you?" Hesara nodded slowly, eyes flickering towards her hiding place. Cicero looked as well, shocked that...Mother had spoken. She had finally spoken! The words! The words, the words, the words! She said the words! The blessed, beautiful words! A laugh started up in his chest and came forward.

"OOOOHHHH YOU ARE THE LISTENER," he screeched happily, jumping up from her,"It's you you you YOU YOU YOUUUUUU! AHAAAHAAHA!"

He grinned up at her so widely, she could have sworn his face would split into two pieces. He suddenly starting doing a happy dance around her figure as she stood.

 

"THE LISTENER HAS BEEN FOUND!"


	2. Chapter 2

"She's BACK! Our lady is BACK," he continued to cackle merrily. He danced about the room screeching, but Hesara's attention was diverted to the sound of rushing feet and looked quickly to the door as Astrid bursted in,"By Sithis, this ends now!"

She was looking all over the room angrily before narrowing in on the Jester,"Back away, fool! Whatever you've been planning is over!"

She jerked her head and slowly Hesara made her way over,"Are you all right? I heard the commotion. Who was Cicero talking to? Where's the accomplice?"

She looked around the room behind the Bosmer, snarling,"Reveal yourself, traitor!"

Cicero ran up to them, still grinning widely and at every other word, glanced at Hesara,"I only spoke to the Night Mother! I spoke to the Night Mother, but she didn't speak to me! Oh no! She spoke only to her."

He turned to point at her, his eyes shining with excitement and laughed again,"She's BACK! Our lady mother is BACK! She finally chose chose chose chose! She can finally speak to us! Speak to us throooooough~"

He paused for a moment before screeching happily once more,"THE LISTENEEEEEERRRRRR!"

Both women cringed at the sound. Outside Hesara could hear Arnbjorn growl in annoyance and Veezara's hiss of pain. When he went back to giggling erratically, Astrid turned to face the still silent Bosomer,"Arnbjorn heard the commotion and I knew you'd been found out. But what is that fool blathering about?

"He's saying I'm a listener." A gasp filled the silent room.

"No no noooooo," Cicero said, jumping between her and Astrid, looking a little desperate," Not a listener! THEEEEE LISTENER!"

Hesara blinked at him before talking over his head to Astrid,"The Mother talked. She said I was hers."

Astrid's face remained blank, but her brows furrowed as she took in the information.

"She wants a job done. A Mortierre person. He wants to talk."

Cicero let out another loud squeal and started jumping all over the place in glee,"She spoke! Spoke spoke spoke spoke! We can hear her! Her will shall be DONE!"

"No," Astrid gasped, losing her cool facade for a moment,"No no no no! Don't do ANYTHING. Not, not yet."

Both watched as she left the room, looking like her whole world had ended and Cicero grumbled darkly,"Ooooh, Defiler! Fraud! She does not believe in the Night Mother!"

He turned and grinned up at her crazily,"We'll make her see, won't we? The Night Mother has chosen a LISTENER! LISTENER!"

His crazy giggling started up again,"She's back back back baaaaaAAAAAACK! Blood will flow through Skyrim again and paint the skies red!"

Hesara stared for a while at Cicero, not really hearing what he was babbling about,"Mortierre. Mortierre," she thought but the name brought no memories or even bells maybe in another mind...one that had been around for a longer time. She found Babette hunched over the medical herbs she had gathered from outside, carefully grating them with a frown of concentration. She looked over as the scratching of a quill, along with Cicero's constant giggling becoming louder. Hesara handed over a piece of paper.

"Oh? And what is this," the little vampire asked, gently taking the paper. She studied it for just a moment before a slow smile curved her lips,"The Mortierre family," she asked, hming quietly and tapping her cheek,"That is a very old family. Breton, too, if I remember correctly."

She handed the slip of paper back,"That's all that I can really tell you."

Hesara frowned down at the paper as she tried to wonder what a member of an old Breton family would want with the Dark Brotherhood. Something was prodding the back of her mind that it was something more than a simple assassination.

"Mor-tierre,"Cicero's voice purred over her shoulder. The Fool was standing on the tips of his toes to read the name, grinning crazily,"The Mortierre family, needs MORE TEAR be-cause their blood is blue! Tear tear tear TEARY AIR, the Mortierre family fares are fair!

His laughter grated on her ear as he fell back. She turned around slowly to face him...and slapped him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> :D Same as before: Everything except Hesara belongs to Bethsada. Hesara is mine.
> 
> PLEASE COMMENT! <3


	3. Chapter 3

The force of her slap sent Cicero flying into a small table, knocking over the nightshade and table all together. Hesara didn't care, her ears were still ringing and starting to feel hot from the loud shrill sound of his voice. For a moment, the room spun around her and she squeezed her eyes shut to stop herself from falling. The Keeper shook his head, buzzing taking over the silence and he grinned at the Listener.

She tensed, hearing the soft slice of air as he leapt and swung around to meet his unsheathed knife. Glass met ebony for a split second before Cicero dropped his knife arm to make her stumble, grabbed the Listener's hand and pushed it back to make it pop. She hissed and took a few steps back, but was able to block him as he came at her again with quick, rough swipes of his blade. He twirled around her to take a stab that she again blocked easily before he dived in between her legs and cut her leg before she could. She whirled around to face him, ignoring the twinge and ready to go defense again. Instead, she watched as Cicero sheathed his dagger.

“Humble Cicero lives to serve,” he said, arrogantly bowing low to her and grinned crazily. She blinked at him in confusion before turning on her heel and leaving him alone. Cicero grinned after her as she left before turning to the Night Mother's crypt.

“Dear mother,” he crooned quietly, setting his head against the coffin,”You're finally going to talk to sweet, sweet Cicero!”

As the door shut behind her, Cicero burst out into loud song that make her clench her teeth tightly, blood rushing to them once more. Her headache worsened as his singing became louder, even as she walked further away. She hurried down the steps to stand before the semi deep pool located in the middle of the Sanctuary. Loosening her belts and setting aside her pouches, she stripped down to the loose clothing she had on underneath and stepped lightly into the pool. The water was nice on her skin, not too cold or hot. She interrupted the silence with a loud splash as she dived in. Veezara paused in his practice to glance over to her last seen place.

Down in the depths, Hesara closed her eyes in bliss as the water surrounded her and plugged her poor ears. They ached for a small while before letting her enjoy the water fully.

The Bosomer loved water. It was truly quiet and peaceful to her, blocking out all noise and shielding her from any real attacks. Here, her tense frame settled and drifted with the current. As her lungs started to cramp, she started to swim up before something grabbed her. Hesara opened her eyes slowly and saw a green scaled face staring back at her. Veezara had come in with her. He flashed her a quick smile that she returned with a tick of her eyebrow (a smile to her) before swimming closer to seal their lips together. Breathable air rushed into her lungs that she took in greedily before he pulled away. He laid back on the floor of the pool and shut his eyes to relax as well.

Soon, her thoughts turned away from the water and to the situation she found herself facing. The Night Mother had given her a task she needed to complete. Astrid, for one reason or another, did not want her fulfilling the command. Hesara had a suspicion that she'd need to be incredibly careful around the higher ranking woman from here on out. She'd read about the old command structure of the Dark Brotherhood and knew what was troubling Astrid. She thought Hesara would get ideas about replacing her as the Leader, ironically the reason she had her first enter the Night Mother's coffin for in the first place. A plan started to form, and Hesara knew it would not be so easy to complete.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Author's Note:  
> Hey there! Sorry, I've been away for so long! I've been having a major writer's block and it's starting to go away...slowly. As you can see, things are going to get interesting for the Dark Brotherhood. I hope you like this chapter, tell me what needs improving please!
> 
> Everyone except Hesara belongs to Bethsada
> 
> Hesara is my own character!


	4. Chapter 4

Even the blind could feel the tension that filled the dark cavern of the Brotherhood. A dance of knives and wits took place every day, and every day the wits were stripped down further to reveal the throbbing nerves. Cicero and Astrid's “polite talks” were becoming more and more ugly the longer the Jester stayed. Right after one where it seemed as if something would break, Hesara put her plan into motion by meeting Cicero near the Night Mother's coffin. No words were said, none were needed, and Hesara left only a small piece of paper with her needs written on it. After a quick scan, the Jester rolled it up into the finger of his glove for safekeeping. He disappeared a few days later.

“Thank the Sands,” the old Redguard murmured more than once, every time he seemed to enter a room. Astrid seemed to second that notion. Hesara was able to catch a few glances of her becoming more and more relaxed the longer Cicero was gone. Just as expected.


	5. Chapter 5

Cicero finally returned to her at the worst possible moment. High on the cold slopes of the mountains, hunting for a bandit who had tricked a woman who now wanted revenge. Enemies were possibly everywhere and he decided to show up, singing of all things, behind her. The Jester screeched with laughter as he danced away from her quick blade and grinned at her. He gave her a mocking bow as she sheathed her weapon with an annoyed scowl. He had been gone for a little over three months and as soon as he was back, she was irritated as any poked saber cat.

“Humble Cicero has completed his task,” he giggled happily and shot her a sly look,”Does dear Listener wish to know what sneaky Cicero discovered?”

They were able to find a cave a little lower on the mountain, but still high enough to be ridiculously cold. Hesara had spent many days tracking the bandits and she didn't want to lose the precious ground she had covered. All the mountains looked the same to her and by now, the signs of their beings would be blown away by the storm. A campfire was made, slowly heating up the cave and chasing the chill of the snow from their skins. As Hesara laid out her furs, Cicero chattered excitedly at her.

“Mortierre is one of the advisors to the king,” he said suddenly at her ear, making her jerk and twitch at his sudden closeness,”Look at what he gave loyal Cicero!”

He pulled out a rather gaudy necklace that looked to hang to the wearer's stomach. Hesara crinkled her nose at it, and raised an eyebrow at Cicero.

“Apparently,” he said to answer the question,”there are only a few people who can wear this...thing. And those are the lords of the Elder Council. Those who serve directly under the Emperor.”

Hesara had never really been interested in Skyrim's politics. People were just people to her, she never knew why titles held such importance. If a target had a lot of gold, it just meant more fun for her. A shudder ran down her body at the thought of facing so many enemies and just cutting away at their bodies as if they were nothing. Cicero grinned as if he could read her thoughts as he handed it off to her so she could look it over as he went back to his chit chat and screeching songs. Hesara just continued to think. There was only one reason why a man just under the Emperor would want to contact the Dark Brotherhood. Even madmen could figure it out in an instant. Things were certainly going to become....interesting.

 

She silenced him with a hand, eyes narrowing and quietly crept to the mouth of the cave. Cicero unsheathed his blade and followed to the other side of the opening, glancing at the Listener. She was more tensed than usual and her eyes kept darting around and Cicero knew she could hear something not of an animal. By the way she was looking, something told Cicero it was people....and a lot of them.

An arrow flew past their heads and all Soverngard broke loose. Both assassin's ran swiftly from their cave to keep themselves from being blocked in and easier to kill, dodging and deflecting arrows from three of the bandits

 

It wasn't just a few, though...it was a clan.

Hesara felt the bloodlust come over her quickly, making her eyes dilate and an unnerving grin to slide across her mouth. Her blood roared in her ears as she lashed out, causing someone else's to splatter her cheek. As the bandit toppled backwards, Hesara's milky eyes concentrated on his brethren who were watching her and Cicero warily. Once more, Hesara grinned at them and slowly slid her gore covered dagger across her tongue. A war cry broke and both sides charged.

Cicero became a small whirlwind, hacking and slashing anything he could reach with his daggers. Two bandits were dead immediately, while it took a few more hits and many maneuvers to make a large one with a sledgehammer fall.

"Fiends," the small Jester shrieked as he continued his frenzy of death, never leaving Hesara's side as they moved around,"You will not touch the Listener!"

He jumped a rather large bandit, narrowly dodging his axe to slip into an opening that allowed his to slice the back of his knees to bring him down close enough to grab at him and start stabbing at any pieces of skin he could see.

“Get him off me,” the bandit yelled, trying to pull the Jester off,”He's killing me!” 

Two more rushed over to pull the Jester off their friend, but it was too late. Cicero hopped off as the body fell, clinging to another and ready to send him on the heels of the first, except the third bandit was able to grab his wrist before he could strike and yanked him off. With an impressive heave and a strong arm, he launched Cicero away. The jester tried grabbing onto something, anything, as the snow carried him towards an edge. It was no good, he couldn't even use his dagger as it had fallen into enemy hands when he had been pulled away. Silently, for once, (he didn't want to distract the Listener and get her killed after all), he slipped out of sight and plunged down the mountain side.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I thought I had put a note in the last chapter about why it's taken so long. My little sister accidentally set a little babushka doll on top of my comp as a present for me, without knowing it was a little magnet. It destroyed my comp and all my chapters and notes I had written. I've been trying to remember and rewrite them all! When I went back to see if I could jog any memories, I saw my supposed note wasn't there. As an apology, I'm putting these chapters up and I'll go back over to correct them. So please, tell me if there are any mistakes and errors.


	6. Chapter 6

The clan was killed...but the Keeper might be as well.

Hesara cursed internally as she pulled the blade from the last bandit's body and quickly rushed to the edge. All she could see was pure white. Any holes made by the jester or footprints were filled enough by the heavy falling snow.

"Mother help me, help me, help me. Help me find Cicero, I can't do this on my own. He'll die if you don't help," she found herself chanting as she struggled to find the Keeper through the worsening storm. Snow stung her eyes and icy winds stung her fingers worse than any metal blade could as she went along the side to try and find a way down. She worked through the pain, pushed through it by concentrating on her internal chanting.

"Mother, help me. Mother, help me. Help me save him, help me find him. I need help!"

The chant had turned to a panic yell in her head as her foot stepped on a patch of ice and pulled her feet out from under her. She tried to regain her footing, but all she met was more ice that refused to let her stabilize until she had to jab her nails in to break the ice. Her fingers took the full brunt of her weight, making her nails feel as if they were being torn off. The elf gritted her teeth, once more trying to fight the pain and hunger and weariness of the day. Despite it, she reached out and dug her nails into the ice above her. Slowly she was beginning to climb. It felt like hours when she could finally see the the edge. However, by that time, she knew she could go on no more. Just as the thought came to mind a rough hand grabbed her wrist in a bruising grip and yanked her nails out of the ice. Hesara glanced up and struggled while she tried using her free hand to grab her dagger.

It was one of the bandits, still alive.

" _Be still, dragon soul_ ," a familiar voice crooned in her head," _Be still for I will help_."

The bandit pulled her up single handed by simply straightening up. Once back on solid ground, Hesara watched as the bandit's bodies started rising up, walking to the edge of the cliff and falling off where Cicero had disappeared with no feeling of pain or fear. They were all moving and searching for the Keeper, now covering a lot more ground with many more hands.

It took two agonizing hours to finally locate the Keeper and dig him out of the snow. By the time Hesara hauled him out of the small hole dug, Cicero was soaked to the bone from melted snow and a worrying shade of pale blue that was more prominent around his eyes and lips. It was not a good color. She turned to the bodies for help to take him, however, they had all fallen lifeless again as the Night Mother's spell wore off. As quick as she could, Hesara strapped him to her chest with rope and trekked back to the small cave. The fire had downed to mere coals and she left him beside it to fetch anything that would help it grow from the bandits, including their hair. She used the locks lastly so the flames caught fire to the rest of the items. Once she was sure it would hold for a while, she turned back to Cicero.

" _Body heat_ ," her mind suddenly answered, as she tucked him in a makeshift blanket from the saber cat pelt she had," _create more heat_."

She had to peel the Jester's clothing off from him, the ice water was not helping his condition and she wrung them out and set them to dry. Next, she called her loyal dapple mare to act as a second source of heat, laying down a bag of food for her to keep her from wandering off. She propped him against the animal's stomach, hoping it was semi comfortable. Now came the uncomfortable part...

With a deep breath, Hesara stripped out of her own freezing cold clothes and laid them out next to his before sliding in next to the Keeper. She hissed when their skins touched as the cold from him invaded to her bones. She allowed herself a few seconds to adjust to his temperature before shifting to allow maximum heat. With no thought or emotion to the situation, she put both his hands underneath her breasts. A lot of heat was trapped under them, and had helped her keep her own fingers intact more times than she could count. She tucked them both in tightly to the furs before wrapping her legs around his and pulling him as close as possible with his head cradled onto her breasts. Hesara's skin was now prickly with goosebumps from the cold and she herself was becoming stiff from it. Quietly, the Bosomer wrung out the Keeper's hair, relieving it of more ice water. As she started finger brushing it, she found herself looking him over.

She had never really looked at Cicero, REALLY looked, mainly for the reason of his constant screeching and restless bouncing around. Now that he lay against her, even though near the brink of freezing to his death, she found herself taking him in for the first time.

He had strong features, not like the roughness of the Nords but not without their own charms as well. He had an older look to his face that the Bosomer had aways found attractive in humans. All male elves from Altmer to Dark to Bosomer always seemed trapped in a face of youth. For one reason or another, it never drew her to even get close to them, let alone actually speak. His hair was a lovely shaded mixture, like the bark of a redwood tree, brushing his shoulders in small waves even though the locks were still heavy with water. By the time she had lulled herself to sleep, the sun was going down and the storm was letting up.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you everyone for the reviews, favs, and follows! I'm so glad you like this story!
> 
> The usual disclaimers: No one but Hesara is mine.
> 
> Ha! Found some of my old notes on paper and was able to remember where I wanted to go~
> 
> Does this chapter seem a little fast, jump around too much, etc? Message me oor review your opinions, please!

**Author's Note:**

> Haha! Meet Hesara! My Bosmer from Skyrim. She belongs to me and everything else belongs to Bethsada.
> 
> Please enjoy and tell me what you think!


End file.
